Spark to build data centre & surf park on Auckland's North Shore

Spark has announced it has secured resource consent to construct a large-scale data centre on Auckland's North Shore. The development is part of a 43-hectare masterplan in collaboration with global surf park creators, Aventuur.

The project will utilise an innovative heat exchange system, harnessing excess heat from the data centre to warm the water of the adjacent surfing lagoon. Additionally, an on-site seven-hectare solar farm will contribute renewable energy back into the data centre’s operations.

Michael Stribling, Spark General Manager of Infrastructure, highlighted the strategic importance of the new development. “Accelerating growth in our data centre business is a core focus of Spark's strategy, and with data usage increasing exponentially, particularly with the advent of generative AI, demand for capacity is growing rapidly,” he stated. “Spark is well positioned to capture its share of this growth with our existing data centre network, complementary digital infrastructure, relationships with cloud hyperscalers, and our ability to provide products and services over the top."

Receiving resource consent for the North Shore development is a significant milestone for the company. The new site will serve as Spark's third strategic Auckland location, with the capacity for a staged build of a 40MW campus over time.

In terms of sustainability, Matt Ryan, Customer and Growth Lead at Spark Data Centres, expressed the company’s innovative approach. "As we expand our data centre footprint we want to do so with sustainability front of mind, and our North Shore development delivers on this ambition in a really innovative way. We are targeting LEED Gold design certification and industry-leading power, water, and carbon usage effectiveness, providing strong sustainability credentials for our customers."

Although the onsite solar farm will supply only a small portion of the data centre’s annual energy needs, Spark's investment in renewable energy within New Zealand marks a step towards decoupling its business growth from emissions growth. In May, Spark entered into a 10-year partnership with Genesis Energy to purchase 100% of the electricity generated by Genesis's solar farm in Lauriston, Canterbury. This initiative will cover approximately 60% of Spark’s annual electricity requirements and make a considerable contribution to its science-based emissions reduction target.

Richard Duff, Co-founder of Aventuur, shared his enthusiasm for the project. “This is an exciting development for Auckland, and a great example of how innovation can create more sustainable solutions. We are thrilled to be working together with Spark to create a world-first symbiotic relationship between a surf park, data centre, and solar farm,” he remarked.

Currently, Spark’s data centre portfolio comprises 22.3MW of total capacity spread across its core market of Auckland and regional centres including Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. With a development pipeline totalling 70MW, Spark has the potential to increase its total data centre capacity to over 90MW in the future.

In Auckland, Spark will operate three strategic data centre locations, including its largest site at Takanini, the CBD site on Mayoral Drive, and the planned North Shore development. The recent completion of a 10MW expansion at the Takanini campus has increased its total capacity to 12.3MW, with further designs in progress to add an additional 15MW. The Takanini campus also has potential for further expansions. The 2.9MW CBD data centre, while smaller, remains strategically important due to its customer ecosystem and role as a key connection point for international submarine cable systems and national networks. An adjacent Spark-owned site provides the opportunity to expand the CBD campus to 17.9MW in the future.